Best melee build in Starfield

In Starfield, you can design your character in various ways depending on the type of weapons you plan on using. If you’re someone who prefers a melee build, like myself, in other Bethesda games such as Fallout 76 (who doesn’t love a flaming chainsaw?), then you might feel limited in Starfield as there isn’t much you can do to create a melee character compared to one that uses guns. However, after hours of gameplay, I have discovered the best melee build in Starfield that will give you an edge over your enemies and make them fall to your blade.

Best melee build in Starfield:  Background, traits, skills, and weapons

This guide will cover the best background, traits, skills, and weapons for use in a melee build. This build will focus on doing enormous amounts of damage when you initiate a sneak attack and then will have excellent survival when fighting multiple enemies simultaneously. You’ll be ducking, dodging, slicing, and dicing enemies!

Best melee build background in Starfield

Image: PC Invasion

You want to take the Chef background since you will start with the Dueling skill, which is the core skill for the best melee build in Starfield. The Gastronomy skill is surprisingly helpful since you can eat food items to gain XP boosts, which lets you level fast. Finally, the Scavenger skill will allow you to find extra Credits, which will help you during the beginning stages of the game.

Best melee build traits in Starfield

Image: PC Invasion

Here are the best melee build Traits in Starfield:

• Alien DNA
• Introvert
• Neon Street Rat

I like Alien DNA since it increases health, which will help your survival when in the melee range of enemies. I honestly didn’t think the healing and food items being less effective was all that bad or noticeable.

My melee build is a Ronin build, meaning I went without active companions when completing missions (I still had them assigned to my ship, though). The Introvert perk means you use less oxygen when adventuring alone, which is essential since you will run in and out of combat. However, if you want a companion, you can use the Extrovert perk, which lets you gain the same benefit while having a companion.

Finally, I picked the Neon Street Rat since Neon is where you need to be to get the best melee weapon in Starfield, the Wakizashi. I also like the flavor that this gave my character over other Traits.

Related: Best weapons for every companion in Starfield

Best melee build skills in Starfield

Image: PC Invasion

Here are the best Combat skills:

• Dueling
• Armor Penetration

Here are the best Physical skills:

• Wellness
• Fitness
• Stealth
• Pain Tolerance
• Nutrition
• Gymnastics
• Energy Weapon Dissipation
• Martial Arts
• Cellular Regeneration
• Concealment

Here are the best Tech skills:

• Security

The primary skills you want to rank first are Dueling, Armor Penetration, Stealth, Martial Arts, and Concealment since those are the bread and butter of your sneaking damage. Since Concealment is in the last tier of the Physical skill tree you want to rank up skills that mitigate damage, like Pain Tolerance, until you have enough points to take it. This will help your survival rate since you will be in everyone’s faces once the initial sneak attack ends. You can round off your build with some fun perks like Gymnastics that let you combat slide and give you an increase in speed after combat sliding or mantling.

I also recommend taking Security as early as possible if you plan on utilizing the Lockpicking mini-game since you need it to hack into containers and computers. There is enough incentive to get this skill to Rank 3, which lets you hack into devices up to a Master lock. You can ignore this trait if you don’t plan on using the Lockpicking mechanic.

Best melee build weapons in Starfield

Image: PC Invasion

The best melee weapon is the Wakizashi, a katana that does 49 Phys damage. You can get Wakizashi by purchasing it from the vendor, Hatchet, after joining the Ebbside Strikers. Go to Madame Sauvage’s Place in Neon to start the questline, allowing you to join the faction.

• Note: I didn’t pick the Va’ruun Painblade because a bug causes the weapon to damage you as you swing it while fighting enemies.

If you can’t get the Wakizashi weapon, the next best option is the Tanto. The Tanto does 40 Phys damage and can be easily obtained at the UC Surplus store in The Well, making it easily found during the beginning stages of the game. You may have to wait 24 local hours to refresh his shop inventory for the Tanto to show up.

Author’s Note: I wrote this guide while playing Starfield on Xbox Series S and PC.